Cisco acquires Jasper in $1.4bn bet on the internet of things cloud

Cisco has revealed that it has acquired internet of things cloud developer Jasper Technologies for $1.4bn. The move will enable makers of connected machines to bring products to market much faster.

In a calculated move, Cisco has marched to the heart of the problem facing creators of internet of things (IoT) products and services – the need for a network foundation to add cars, sensors, home devices and more to a commoditised network.

Santa Clara-based Jasper Technologies has raised more than $200m in funding and is led by founder Benyamin Parto. The company originally developed the BluLocksystem, for locking / unlocking all types of door locks, securely, for home and office, using mobile phones.

However, this evolved into a network foundation platform that allows enterprises to simplify and automate the management of IoT services across a wide range of connected products, including cars, printers, vending machines and more.

Cisco move will accelerate enterprise journey to IoT

“I’m incredibly excited about this news and believe it will help accelerate the digitisation journey of our enterprise customers,” explained Rob Salvagno, Cisco’s VP of corporate business development.

“Jasper understands that enterprises making connected products need a simple, scalable and interoperable IoT service platform that can support the billions of connected devices estimated to be connected to the network in the next five years. Together, Cisco and Jasper will deliver exactly that to our customers.

“At Cisco, we use our build, buy, partner, invest and co-develop approach to innovation to identify and capture key market disruptions such as IoT.

“Today, Cisco Investments is one of the most active IoT investors globally, with over 50 companies in our portfolio; providing us a front row seat into the disruption and opportunity that IoT promises,” Salvagno said.